Size indication for feedback signaling

ABSTRACT

There is disclosed a method of operating a user equipment in a radio access network. The method includes transmitting feedback signaling utilizing a feedback resource range, the feedback resource range being determined based on a received feedback size indication. The feedback resource range is a part of a signaling resource range configured to the user equipment for transmission.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of International Application No.PCT/SE2017/050593, filed Jun. 2, 2017, the entirety which isincorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This disclosure pertains to wireless communication technology, inparticular in the context of feedback signaling in a radio accessnetwork (RAN).

BACKGROUND

In modern communication systems, feedback signaling is provide in anetwork for improved communication. Such feedback signaling may forexample comprise measurement report signaling and/or acknowledgementsignaling, e.g. in the context of acknowledgement processes. Based onfeedback signaling, it may for example be determined whether data blockshave to be retransmitted (e.g., in the context of acknowledgementsignaling processing), or which transmission mode/operationalcharacteristics are suitable for reported channel conditions (e.g., inthe context of measurement reporting). Feedback signaling is usually notprovide as only transmission in a given transmission timing structure,but in parallel and/or multiplexed (e.g., time and/or frequencymultiplexed) with other transmissions or signalings, e.g. datatransmission and/or other control signaling. Moreover, feedbacksignaling may pertain to a plurality of different and changingprocesses, accordingly, it may be quite variable (e.g., in size) overtime, for example between different occurrences and/or differenttransmission timing structures like slots or subframes.

SUMMARY

An object of this disclosure is to provide approaches allowing improvedhandling of feedback signaling, in particular in the context of radioaccess networks. The approaches may in particular enable reliable andpredictable handling of feedback signaling, respectively correspondingsignaling structures. The approaches are particularly advantageouslyimplemented in a 5th Generation (5G) telecommunication network or 5Gradio access technology or network (RAT/RAN), in particular according to3GPP (3^(rd) Generation Partnership Project, a standardizationorganization). A suitable RAN may in particular be a RAN according toNR, for example release 15 or later, or LTE Evolution.

Accordingly, there is disclosed a method of operating a user equipmentin a radio access network. The method comprises transmitting feedbacksignaling utilizing a feedback resource range. The feedback resourcerange is determined based on a received feedback size indication,wherein the feedback resource range is a part of a signaling resourcerange configured to the user equipment for transmission.

Also, a user equipment or radio node for a radio access network isdescribed. The user equipment or radio node is adapted for transmittingfeedback signaling utilizing a feedback resource range, the feedbackresource range being determined based on a received feedback sizeindication. The feedback resource range is a part of a signalingresource range configured to the user equipment or radio node fortransmission. The user equipment or radio node may comprise, and/or beadapted for utilizing, processing circuitry and/or radio circuitry, inparticular a transmitter and/or transceiver, for such transmitting.Alternatively, or additionally, the user equipment or radio node maycomprise a transmitting module for such transmitting. It may beconsidered that the user equipment or radio node comprises, and/or isadapted for utilizing, processing circuitry and/or radio circuitry, inparticular a receiver and/or transceiver, for receiving the feedbacksize indication, and/or for configuring itself therewith, e.g. bydetermining the indication. The latter may in particular be implementedif the radio node is a network node.

A method of operating a radio node in a radio access network may beconsidered. The method comprises configuring a second radio node with afeedback size indication indicating a size of feedback signaling.Alternatively, or additionally, the method may comprise receivingfeedback signaling in a feedback resource range determined based on a(in particular, the configured) feedback size indication, wherein thefeedback resource range is a part of a signaling resource rangeconfigured to the second radio node for transmission.

There is also described a radio node for a radio access network. Theradio node may be adapted for configuring a second radio node with afeedback size indication indicating a size of feedback signaling.Alternatively, or additionally, the radio node may be adapted forreceiving feedback signaling in a feedback resource range determinedbased on a size of feedback signaling, in particular the configuredfeedback size indication. The feedback resource range is a part of asignaling resource range configured to the second radio node fortransmission. The radio node may comprise, and/or be adapted forutilizing, processing circuitry and/or radio circuitry, in particular atransmitter and/or transceiver, for such transmitting or configuring.Alternatively, or additionally, the radio node may comprise atransmitting module for such transmitting. It may be considered that theuser equipment or radio node comprises, and/or is adapted for utilizing,processing circuitry and/or radio circuitry, in particular a receiverand/or transceiver, for receiving the feedback size indication, and/orfor configuring itself therewith, e.g. by determining the indication.The latter may in particular be implemented if the radio node is anetwork node.

Approaches described herein allow improved feedback signaling handling,in particular by configuring radio nodes/UEs with an indication of an(expected) size related to feedback signaling. Accordingly, confusionbetween the radio nodes regarding transmission structures/resourcesassociated to different channels may be avoided or limited, with limitedsignaling overhead.

A resource range may be considered a resource structure, which may beassociated to, and/or arranged in, a (e.g., specific) transmissiontiming structure, e.g. a slot or PRB. Such a range may in particular beresource structure comprising one or more resource element, and/or covera time interval and a frequency interval.

Generally, a resource range may have an extension in time and/orfrequency domain depending on a numerology, which may be configuredand/or configurable.

A feedback resource range may be considered to comprise and/or representand/or to be associated to and/or to be scheduled for feedback signalingor UCI comprising feedback signaling, e.g. on a specific channel likePUSCH or PUCCH. A signaling resource range may be considered a resourcestructure, in particular in time and frequency domain, which maycomprise a plurality of resource elements. The signaling resource rangemay be larger than the feedback resource range. However, there may beconsidered solutions in which the feedback resource range is thesignaling resource range, e.g. for UCI on PUCCH, in particular if UCIonly comprises feedback signaling.

A signaling resource range configured to a radio node or UE may beconsidered a resource structure scheduled and/or indicated to the radionode for transmission by the radio node. Such a configured resourcerange may pertain to signaling on a specific channel or specificchannels, e.g. PUSCH and/or PUCCH.

The radio node may be a user equipment or terminal, or a network node.The second radio node in particular may be a user equipment or terminal,for example a user equipment as described above. It may be consideredthat the feedback size indication is configured with downlink signaling,for example downlink control signaling like DCI (Downlink ControlInformation).

Generally, feedback signaling may be in response to received datatransmission and/or reference signaling.

The feedback signaling may comprise and/or represent and/or consist ofacknowledgement signaling. Acknowledgment signaling may pertain to oneor more acknowledgement signaling processes and/or one or more datablocks. Such data blocks and/or associated signaling may be configuredand/or scheduled for the radio node for reception, e.g. utilizingcorresponding control signaling, which may be represented by schedulingassignments. In some variants, feedback signaling may comprise, and/orrepresent acknowledgment signaling, and/or measurement reportingsignaling, and/or UCI signaling.

Feedback signaling, in particular acknowledgement signaling, may pertainto one or more carriers, e.g. several carriers in a carrier aggregation(e.g. received carrier/s). The feedback signaling may be transmission inuplink, or sidelink, e.g. in response to data and/or reference signalingreceived or scheduled in downlink or sidelink. Acknowledgement signalingin response to received and/or scheduled data or corresponding signalingmay be considered to be based on performing an acknowledgementdetermination and/or involve actions of an acknowledgement signalingprocess, e.g. error detection and/or correction and/or soft-combining.Measurement reporting signaling in response to received and/or scheduledreference signaling may comprise performing measurement/s and/ordetermining measurement information based on the reference signaling.

The feedback size indication may generally be represented by two or morebits, and/or a bit pattern comprising two or more bits. Signaling or asignaling format comprising and/or carrying the feedback size indicationmay comprise a corresponding bit field.

In some variants, the feedback size indication may represent a sizerange, e.g. a range of bits. Different values or setting of theindication may indicate different size ranges. In this context, a sizerange may indicate a range of sizes in which the scheduled or expectedsize of an expected or scheduled feedback should lie, or is likely tolie. The indication may generally be selected to allow determination ofa size or range on its own, in which it may be a direct indication, ortogether with other information, in which case it may be considered anindirect indication. Determination of a size or range may compriseand/or be implemented as an estimate and/or based on a likelihood, suchthat the determined size or range may comprise an error or be erroneous,e.g. with a certain possibility or possibility distribution.

It may be considered that the feedback size indication pertains to asize of signaling pertaining to a plurality of different feedbackprocesses, in particular to a plurality of acknowledgement signalingprocesses. In particular, the feedback size indication may pertainand/or indicate a size (e.g., in bits or resource elements)corresponding to a size required for transmitting acknowledgementinformation/signaling pertaining to a number of scheduledacknowledgement signaling processes, respectively associated data orscheduled transmissions, and/or associated scheduling assignments. Forexample, the feedback size indication may correspond to and/or representthe number of bits and/or resource elements associated to a number ofassociated acknowledgement signaling processes, e.g. scheduled within orfor a given time interval. The given time interval may comprise one ormore transmission timing structures, and/or one or more slotsrespectively associated time intervals. Alternatively, or additionally,the feedback size indication may pertain to feedback signalingassociated to and/or scheduled and/or expected in a specifictransmission timing structure, e.g. slot interval or mini-slot, and/orassociated to or scheduled for a specific channel or resource structure,in particular the feedback resource range.

The feedback signaling may be transmitted as Physical Uplink SharedChannel, PUSCH, signaling, or as Physical Uplink Control Channel, PUCCH,signaling. The signaling may utilize a resource structure associated toand/or scheduled for such a channel.

Scheduling a resource structure may comprise determining and/orindicating, in particular configuring, the resource structure forsignaling or a transmission, e.g. in downlink, uplink or sidelink. Suchindicating or configuring may comprise transmitting schedulinginformation and/or corresponding configuration data. Schedulingsignaling/a transmission, respectively an associated resource structure,to be received by a scheduled or configured radio node (e.g., indownlink) may comprise transmitting or indicating one or more schedulingassignments, e.g. in one or more messages. Scheduling signaling/atransmission, respectively an associated resource structure, to besignaled/transmitted by a configured or scheduled radio node (e.g., inuplink) may comprise transmitting a signaling grant, e.g. an uplink orsidelink grant. The feedback size indication may be included in the samemessage as such a grant.

Generally, it may be considered that the feedback size indicationindicates a size that would be required for feedback signaling ifcorresponding scheduling assignments have been correctly received ordetected/decoded. If a radio node misses a scheduling assignment, it maynot even know that it was supposed to know that it should providecorresponding feedback signaling, e.g. acknowledgment signaling orinformation. With the approaches herein, the radio node, e.g. UE, maystill determine a correct size for the feedback signaling, and providetransmission on the feedback resource range and the signaling resourcerange in a correct structure or format. Otherwise, if the node receivingthe feedback signaling and/or signaling corresponding to the signalingresource range has an expectation (e.g., based on the schedulingassignments) of larger size for the feedback signaling, it may receiveor detect the signaling on the ranges wrongly. In particular, signalingon PUSCH or associated resources may be wrongly decoded if the size offeedback signaling carried on PUSCH is different than expected.

Receiving signaling, and/or on a resource range, may comprise decodingand/or demodulation. The receiving may be based on an assumption ofsignaling structure, e.g. format, and/or size, and/or signal and/orinformation distribution. If the assumption is not correct, signalingmay be decoded wrongly, and the corresponding transmission may beconsidered lost, wasting resources.

The feedback size indication may be included in a scheduling grant(e.g., uplink grant) configuring the signaling resource range.Configuring the signaling resource range may comprise configuring it fortransmission by the configured radio node.

It may be considered that the feedback size indication is based on (ordetermined, e.g. by the configuring radio node, based on) a scheduledsize (and/or the size of scheduled) of acknowledgement signaling, inparticular a scheduled number of bits. Scheduled acknowledgementsignaling may be acknowledgment signaling indicated in schedulingassignment/s. It should be noted that scheduled size or scheduledsignaling in this context may be considered from the scheduler's (e.g.,radio node like network node) point of view. A configuration or scheduleactually configured to a radio node may differ from an (intended)schedule or configuration, e.g. due to loss of signaling or information,e.g. lost or missed scheduling assignments.

The feedback size indication may generally be transmitted separatelyfrom one or more scheduling assignments scheduling signaling to whichthe acknowledgment signaling pertains. In particular, the indication maybe transmitted in a different message.

It may be considered that the feedback signaling neighbors PUSCHtransmission in frequency, and/or is included in PUSCH transmission.Such transmission may be on an associated resource structure, e.g.configured for PUSCH. Utilizing such transmissions allows flexibilityand resource-efficient use of resources for feedback signaling, howeverit may lead to confusion between the feedback signaling and the (proper)PUSCH signaling, e.g. (user) data transmission. The approaches describedherein are particularly suited to avoid such issues in this context.

Moreover, a program product comprising instructions causing processingcircuitry to control and/or perform a method as described herein isdisclosed.

Also, there is discussed a carrier medium arrangement carrying and/orstoring a program product as described herein.

It may be considered that the feedback resource range is determinedbased on the feedback size indication. Additionally, the feedbackresource range may be based on received and/or decoded schedulingassignments (which may configure or indicate feedback or acknowledgmentsignaling for the feedback resource range), and/or based on the numberof acknowledgement signaling processes scheduled or associated for therange, e.g. by received scheduling assignment/s. Thus, the feedbackresource range may have a size that in some variants is dependent ondifferent messages or types of messages, e.g. a scheduling grant and oneor more scheduling assignments. The grant may pertain to schedulingresources for transmission by the node receiving the grant, theassignments may indicate data and/or transmission to be received by thenode. In some variants, it may be considered that the feedback resourcerange is (e.g., also) determined based on a configuration, e.g. afeedback configuration or measurement configuration. A measurementconfiguration may for example pertain to timing and/or rate and/or sizeof measurement reporting information or CSI to be included in thefeedback signaling and/or to be signaling utilizing the feedbackresource range.

The radio node or UE transmitting the feedback signaling may determinethe feedback resource range, and/or be adapted for such determining. Itmay be considered that the radio node or UE comprises, and/or is adaptedfor utilizing, processing circuitry and/or radio circuitry, inparticular a receiver and/or transceiver, for such determining, and/orassociated reception of signaling. Alternatively, or additionally, theradio node or UE may comprise a corresponding determining module.

Feedback signaling may be considered a form or control signaling, e.g.uplink or sidelink control signaling, like UCI (Uplink ControlInformation) signaling or SCI (Sidelink Control Information) signaling.

Acknowledgement information may comprise an indication of a specificvalue or state for an acknowledgement signaling process, e.g. ACK orNACK or DTX. Such an indication may for example represent a bit or bitvalue or bit pattern or an information switch. Different levels ofacknowledgement information, e.g. providing differentiated informationabout quality of reception and/or error position in received dataelement/s may be considered and/or represented by control signaling.Acknowledgment information may generally indicate acknowledgment ornon-acknowledgment or non-reception or different levels thereof, e.g.representing ACK or NACK or DTX. Acknowledgment information may pertainto one acknowledgement signaling process. Acknowledgement signaling maycomprise acknowledgement information pertaining to one or moreacknowledgement signaling processes, in particular one or more HARQ orARQ processes. It may be considered that to each acknowledgmentsignaling process the acknowledgement information pertains to, aspecific number of bits of the information size of the control signalingis assigned. Measurement reporting signaling may comprise measurementinformation.

Signaling may generally comprise one or more symbols and/or signalsand/or messages. A signal may comprise one or more bits. An indicationmay represent signaling, and/or be implemented as a signal, or as aplurality of signals. One or more signals may be included in and/orrepresented by a message. Signaling, in particular control signaling,may comprise a plurality of signals and/or messages, which may betransmitted on different carriers and/or be associated to differentacknowledgement signaling processes, e.g. representing and/or pertainingto one or more such processes. An indication may comprise signalingand/or a plurality of signals and/or messages and/or may be comprisedtherein, which may be transmitted on different carriers and/or beassociated to different acknowledgement signaling processes, e.g.representing and/or pertaining to one or more such processes.

Signaling utilizing resources or a resource structure may be signalingcovering the resources or structure, signaling on the associatedfrequency/ies and/or in the associated time interval/s. It may beconsidered that a signaling resource structure comprises and/orencompasses one or more substructures, which may be associated to one ormore different channels and/or types of signaling and/or comprise one ormore holes (resource element/s not scheduled for transmissions orreception of transmissions). A resource substructure, e.g. a feedbackresource structure, may generally be continuous in time and/orfrequency, within the associated intervals. It may be considered that asubstructure, in particular a feedback resource structure, represents arectangle filled with one or more resource elements in time/frequencyspace. However, in some cases, a frequency resource range may representa non-continuous pattern of resources. A signaling resource structuremay be implemented analogously. The resource elements of a substructuremay be scheduled for associated signaling. A feedback resource rangemay, e.g. on one or more resource elements thereof, comprise and/or beassociated to feedback signaling, e.g. measurement reporting signalingand/or acknowledgement signaling. In some variants, it may compriseand/or be associated to additional signaling, e.g. control signalingand/or data signaling like user data signaling, e.g. on PUSCH. Differentsignalings in a feedback resource range may be distributed according toa pattern, which may be configured or configurable, e.g. with ascheduling grant or other control signaling.

A feedback resource range may be determined based on rate matching, e.g.if it is multiplexed on a PUSCH. In rate matching, bits or resourcesassigned to or scheduled for PUSCH may be replaced by bits associated tofeedback signaling, e.g. acknowledgment signaling. It may be consideredthat a feedback resource range may be determined based on a configuredreference resource element and/or a configured arrangement of resourcesin a transmission timing structure. A reference resource element orarrangement may indicate where the range is to be located intime/frequency space, e.g. within a resource element grid in atransmission timing structure. A reference resource element may indicatea border in time and/or frequency for the range. There may be more thanone resource elements configured.

It should generally be noted that the number of bits or a bit rateassociated to specific signaling that can be carried on a resourceelement may be based on a modulation and coding scheme (MCS). Thus, bitsor a bit rate may be seen as a form of resources representing a resourcestructure or range in frequency and/or time, e.g. depending on MCS. TheMCS may be configured or configurable, e.g. by control signaling, e.g.DCI or MAC (Medium Access Control) or RRC (Radio Resource Control)signaling.

Different formats of for control information may be considered, e.g.different formats for a control channel like a Physical Uplink ControlChannel (PUCCH). PUCCH may carry control information or correspondingcontrol signaling, e.g. Uplink Control Information (UCI), which maycomprise acknowledgement signaling like HARQ feedback (ACK/NACK), and/ormeasurement information signaling, e.g. comprising Channel QualityInformation (CQI), and/or Scheduling Request (SR). One of the supportedPUCCH formats may be short, and may e.g. occur at the end of a slotinterval, and/or multiplexed and/or neighboring to PUSCH. Similarcontrol information may be provided on a sidelink, e.g. as SidelinkControl Information (SCI), in particular on a (physical) sidelinkcontrol channel, like a (P)SCCH.

An acknowledgement signaling process may be a process of transmittingand/or retransmitting data (e.g., in the form of data elements), basedon acknowledgement signaling, e.g. acknowledgement feedback like HARQ orARQ feedback. Acknowledgement signaling may comprise and/or representacknowledgement information, which may represent an acknowledgment ornon-acknowledgement, e.g. of correct reception of the corresponding dataor data element, and optionally may represent an indication ofnon-reception. In particular, acknowledgment information may representARQ (Automatic Repeat request) and/or HARQ (Hybrid Automatic RepeatreQuest) feedback. Correct reception may include correctdecoding/demodulation, e.g. according to an ARQ or HARQ process, forexample based on error detection and/or forward error correction coding,which may be based on a data element being received. Correspondingly,incorrect reception (non-acknowledgement) may refer to detection of anerror during decoding/demodulating. Non-reception may indicatenon-reception of a data element and/or non-reception of anacknowledgement position indication indicating a mapping pertaining tothe data element. Non-reception may for example be indicated by a DTX(Discontinuous Transmission) and/or a DRX (Discontinuous Reception)indication. It should be noted that there may be DTX/DRX on either sideof a communication. The radio node determining and/or transmitting theacknowledgement signaling may not receive an expected data element, andindicate this in the acknowledgement signaling as DTX, allowing morefinely grained acknowledgment information. On the other hand, the radionode receiving acknowledgment signaling may not receive an expectedacknowledgement signal, and treat this as a DTX event. Both kinds of DTXmay be treated separately, e.g. as DTX1 and DTX2 or according to adifferent scheme. A data element in the context of acknowledgementsignaling may in particular represent a data block like a transportblock or code block, which may be subject to an acknowledgementsignaling process, and one or more transmissions in the context of sucha process. An acknowledgement signaling process may have associatedthereto a process identifier, e.g. a process number like a HARQ processnumber or identifier or an ARQ process number or identifier.Acknowledgement information associated to an acknowledgement signalingprocess may comprise a number of bits or a bit pattern, e.g. comprising1 or 2 bits. The bit setting may represent ACK or NACK (e.g., 1 or 0, or11 or 00), or in some variants include DRX/DTX or similar. Anacknowledgment signaling process may be associated to a data streamand/or channel or data block, and/or to a transmission in the context ofa data stream and/or channel, or transmission of a data element or datablock. A buffer or memory may be associated to an acknowledgementsignaling process. An acknowledgement signaling process, for example aHARQ process, may comprise soft-combining and/or forward errorcorrection and/or error detection schemes.

Transmission associated to an acknowledgement signaling process, and/orthe associated resources or resource structure, may be configured and/orscheduled, for example by a scheduling assignment. A schedulingassignment may be configured with control signaling, e.g. downlinkcontrol signaling or sidelink control signaling. Such controls signalingmay be considered to represent and/or comprise scheduling signaling,which may indicate scheduling information. A scheduling assignment maybe considered scheduling information indicating scheduling ofsignaling/transmission of signaling. It may be considered that ascheduling assignment may indicate data (e.g., data block or elementand/or channel and/or data stream) and/or an (associated)acknowledgement signaling process and/or resource/s on which the data(or, in some cases, reference signaling) is to be received and/or afeedback resource range on which associated feedback signaling is to betransmitted. Different scheduling assignments may be associated todifferent acknowledgement signaling processes. It may generally beconsidered that one or more scheduling assignments are transmittedseparately from the feedback size indication, e.g. in one or moredifferent messages, or to be separated in time and/or frequency by atleast one symbol time interval and/or subcarrier. In some variants, amessage may comprise more than one scheduling assignment. It may even beconsidered that a scheduling grant is transmitted together with one ormore scheduling assignments, e.g. in the same message and/or accordingto an associated message or signaling format. As such grants may cover asignificant range of resources, receiving/decoding the schedulingassignments may still fail even if a grant is received/identifiedcorrectly.

It may generally be considered that the feedback resource range and/orthe signaling resource range are arranged and/or scheduled and/orconfigured within one, e.g. the same, transmission timing structure,e.g. a slot or PRB or mini-slot.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The drawings are provided to illustrate concepts and approachesdescribed herein, and are not intended to limit their scope. Thedrawings comprise:

FIG. 1, showing a slot interval with PUSCH and PUCCH resource ranges;

FIG. 2, showing an exemplary radio node, implemented as user equipment;and

FIG. 3, showing an exemplary radio node, implemented as network node.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following, concepts and approaches are described in the contextof NR technology by way of example.

Operation of NR requires the transmission of various control informationfrom the UE to the network. Examples of uplink control information (UCI)are hybrid-ARQ acknowledgements (acknowledgement signaling) andchannel-state information (measurement reporting). The UCI can betransmitted on for example

-   -   a separate control channel, PUCCH, occurring for example at the        end of a slot or during a slot, and/or    -   multiplexed with data and transmitted on PUSCH (“UCI on PUSCH”).

Multiplexing of UCI and data can be provided in different ways, e.g.based on rate matching, i.e. to adjust the set of coded bitsrepresenting the data to “make room” for the UCI. The UE and networkshould have a common understanding of whether UCI is present or not,otherwise the network may not be able to decide the uplink data.

Inconsistency between the UE and network regarding UCI presence canoccur due to a missed scheduling assignment, e.g. in a previous slot. Insuch a case, the network expects the UE to transmit an acknowledgementrelating to the downlink data transmission but, since the UE did notreceive the scheduling assignment in the earlier slot (or earlier in thesame slot, in some applications), it will not include any hybrid-ARQfeedback.

The amount (size) of feedback information, in particular the amount ofhybrid-ARQ acknowledgements, may vary from time to time. One reason forvariations may be a varying number of downlink transmissions (acrossslots and/or carriers) to acknowledge in one uplink slot. Sometimesthere is only a single transport block to acknowledge, sometimes therecould be multiple transport blocks (several downlink slots, severalcarriers) or even multiple code block groups (a transport block consistsof multiple code blocks and it has been agreed to have the possibilityfor per-code-block-group acknowledgements).

Using a single bit in the uplink grant to indicate presence/absence ofUCI may not be efficient in case of a dramatically varying UCI size. Thelargest possible UCI size might have to be used even if only a few UCIbits are to be transmitted.

There is proposed to allow indication of multiple feedback signaling orUCI sizes or size ranges, e.g. no, small, medium, and large feedbacksignaling size/UCI. This may facilitate reduced uplink overhead. To eachsuch size classification, a size in resources and/or bits or bit ratemay be associated, e.g. configured or configurably.

Including information in the scheduling grant about the amount ofresource to reserve for UCI (a feedback size indication) is suggestedfor some variants. A small number of bits, e.g. indicatingno/small/medium/large sizes or size classes/ranges, could be sufficientin order not to increase the DCI overhead too much. However, directindication with an index of parameter indicating a size out of acontinuous range of sizes (e.g., integer) could be conceived for moreprecision with slightly larger overhead. The size/s associated toclasses or ranges may be configured or configurable, e.g. based onhigher layer control signaling, e.g. MAC or RRC signaling.

The UE may reserve resources for UCI based on the size informationreceived with the size indication. In case of hybrid-ARQacknowledgements not requiring all the resources, the UE could pad themessage to fill up the reserved resources, e.g. if one or morescheduling assignments have been missed and/or the UE providesacknowledgment information for a lower number of processes than expectedaccording to the scheduling assignments transmitted by the network(representing a network node). Similarly, if the amount of hybrid-ARQinformation to feed back is larger than the amount of resourcesreserved, the UE need to follow some predefined rule on how to compressthe information, for example by grouping transmission together andreporting ACK only if all the members of the group are correctlyreceived.

In addition to the size information received in the DCI, the amount ofresources to use for UCI could depend on the configuration, e.g. ameasurement configuration. For example, if periodic CSI reports havebeen configured and a report is to be transmitted in the slot, the UEknows that “large” means more bits for UCI on PUSCH than “large”received in a slot with no periodic CSI reporting. The size informationin the DCI could also be interpreted in combination with other DCIinformation, e.g. if the DCI indicates transmission of an aperiodic CSIreport in this slot, the size information should be interpreteddifferently than in absence of an aperiodic CSI being requested.

In the following, an example is outlined how a few bits in the UL grantcan indicate the required resources for UCI “relative” to the amount ofscheduled assignments:

Assuming each TB (Transport Block), or generally a data block subject toan acknowledgement signaling process, would require the same amount offeedback (in bits), the ACK/NACK feedback size can be calculated asN_(DL assignments)·N with N_(DL assignments) the number of DLassignments and N the number of HARQ feedback bits needed per datablock/transport block. The UL grant (scheduling grant) could contain asmall bit field representing parity bits p generated by a code/functionwhich takes the number of scheduled assignments N_(DL assignments) asinput. The number of received assignments N′_(DL assignments) (whichcould be smaller than the number of scheduled assignmentsN_(DL assignments) due to errors) together with the parity bits P wouldallow the UE to determine the number of scheduled assignmentsN_(DL assignments) or at least a useful estimate thereof. If the UEknows N_(DL assignments) (or the estimate) and N it can determine thesize of resources the e/gNB assumes for UCI/the feedback resource range.Error cases can be avoided. P may be considered as feedback sizeindication in this case.

One possible choice to calculate the bit field P could be based onmodulo arithmetic: A bit field size of 2 bits (which can represent 0 to3) may be assumed for bit field P. The code point 0 (bit field setting00) may be reserved to indicate “do not include ACK/NACK”. The bit fieldcan then be calculated as P=1+(N_(DL assignments) mode 4) and includedin the UL grant. The UE receives N′_(DL assignments) assignments andcalculates {circumflex over(N)}_(DL assignments)=N′_(DL assignments)+(P−1—N′_(DL assignments))mod4. {circumflex over (N)}_(DL assignments) is correct for up to 3 missedassignments and represent a useful estimate. If P would be of 3 bitsize, up to 7 missed assignments could be corrected. In Table 1, thecases are shown up to 5 scheduled assignments and if the UE misses 1 DLassignment (P is 2 bit wide). Table 2 and 3 show the same example with 2and 3 missed assignments, respectively. Each assignment may beconsidered to pertain to one acknowledgment signaling process. Themodulo function is assumed to form a ring over 0 to 3 in this case alsofor negative operators. A radio node like a UE may be adapted todetermine the feedback size, respectively an associated frequencyresource range, as described herein.

Other functions than the mod-function to calculate P can be envisionedas well as long as they enable to calculate N_(DL assignments) or auseful estimate based on N′_(DL assignments) and P.

TABLE 1 N_(DL assignments) P N_(DL assignments)′ {circumflex over(N)}_(DL assignments) 0 0 0 With code point 0: {circumflex over(N)}_(DL assignments) = 0 1 2 0 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 2 3 4 1 3 4 5 2 4 5

TABLE 2 N_(DL assignments) P N_(DL assignments)′ {circumflex over(N)}_(DL assignments) 0 0 0 With code point 0: {circumflex over(N)}_(DL assignments) = 0 1 2 0 1 2 3 0 2 3 4 1 3 4 1 2 4 5 2 3 5

TABLE 3 N_(DL assignments) P N_(DL assignments)′ {circumflex over(N)}_(DL assignments) 0 0 0 With code point 0: {circumflex over(N)}_(DL assignments) = 0 1 2 0 1 2 3 0 2 3 4 0 3 4 1 1 4 5 2 2 5

As indicated in FIG. 1, simultaneous transmission of PUSCH and PUCCH maybe considered, such that PUCCH may be inside the scheduled PUSCH regionand/or neighbor it in time and/or frequency space. FIG. 1 indicates howPUCCH is moved into the PUSCH region for illustration, as comparison toseparate/non-simultaneous PUSCH and PUCCH. Also in this case, the e/gNBmust be aware that UCI is included within the scheduled PUSCH region andon how many resources. The same approaches as outlined above also applyhere.

In particular, FIG. 1 shows how, in case of simultaneous transmission ofPUSCH and PUCCH, PUCCH resources are moved inside PUSCH for simultaneoustransmission of PUSCH and PUCCH (the dashed PUCCH is not transmitted).The region of PUCCH may be considered to represent the feedback resourcerange, and the region of PUSCH may in this case be considered torepresent a signaling resource range.

FIG. 2 schematically shows a radio node, in particular a terminal orwireless device 10, which may in particular be implemented as a UE (UserEquipment). Radio node 10 comprises processing circuitry (which may alsobe referred to as control circuitry) 20, which may comprise a controllerconnected to a memory. Any module of the radio node 10, e.g. acommunicating module or determining module, may be implemented in and/orexecutable by, the processing circuitry 20, in particular as module inthe controller. Radio node 10 also comprises radio circuitry 22providing receiving and transmitting or transceiving functionality(e.g., one or more transmitters and/or receivers and/or transceivers),the radio circuitry 22 being connected or connectable to the processingcircuitry. An antenna circuitry 24 of the radio node 10 is connected orconnectable to the radio circuitry 22 to collect or send and/or amplifysignals. Radio circuitry 22 and the processing circuitry 20 controllingit are configured for cellular communication with a network, e.g. a RANas described herein, and/or for sidelink communication. Radio node 10may generally be adapted to carry out any of the methods of operating aradio node like terminal or UE disclosed herein; in particular, it maycomprise corresponding circuitry, e.g. processing circuitry, and/ormodules.

FIG. 3 schematically show a radio node 100, which may in particular beimplemented as a network node 100, for example an eNB or gNB or similarfor NR. Radio node 100 comprises processing circuitry (which may also bereferred to as control circuitry) 120, which may comprise a controllerconnected to a memory. Any module, e.g. transmitting module and/orreceiving module and/or configuring module of the node 100 may beimplemented in and/or executable by the processing circuitry 120. Theprocessing circuitry 120 is connected to control radio circuitry 122 ofthe node 100, which provides receiver and transmitter and/or transceiverfunctionality (e.g., comprising one or more transmitters and/orreceivers and/or transceivers). An antenna circuitry 124 may beconnected or connectable to radio circuitry 122 for signal reception ortransmittance and/or amplification. Node 100 may be adapted to carry outany of the methods for operating a radio node or network node disclosedherein; in particular, it may comprise corresponding circuitry, e.g.processing circuitry, and/or modules. The antenna circuitry 124 may beconnected to and/or comprise an antenna array. The node 100,respectively its circuitry, may be adapted to perform any of the methodsof operating a network node or a radio node as described herein.

The timing of a mini-slot may generally be configured or configurable,in particular by the network and/or a network node. The timing may beconfigurable to start and/or end at any symbol of the transmissiontiming structure, in particular one or more slots.

References to specific resource structures like transmission timingstructure and/or symbol and/or slot and/or mini-slot and/or subcarrierand/or carrier may pertain to a specific numerology, which may bepredefined and/or configured or configurable. A transmission timingstructure may represent a time interval, which may cover one or moresymbols. Some examples of a transmission timing structure are subframe,slot and mini-slot. A slot may comprise a predetermined, e.g. predefinedand/or configured or configurable, number of symbols, e.g. 6 or 7, or 12or 14. A mini-slot may comprise a number of symbols (which may inparticular be configurable or configured) smaller than the number ofsymbols of a slot, in particular 1, 2, 3 or 4 symbols. A transmissiontiming structure may cover a time interval of a specific length, whichmay be dependent on symbol time length and/or cyclic prefix used. Atransmission timing structure may pertain to, and/or cover, a specifictime interval in a time stream, e.g. synchronized for communication.Timing structures used and/or scheduled for transmission, e.g. slotand/or mini-slots, may be scheduled in relation to, and/or synchronizedto, a timing structure provided and/or defined by other transmissiontiming structures. Such transmission timing structures may define atiming grid, e.g., with symbol time intervals within individualstructures representing the smallest timing units. Such a timing gridmay for example be defined by slots or subframes (wherein in some cases,subframes may be considered specific variants of slots). A transmissiontiming structure may have a duration (length in time) determined basedon the durations of its symbols, possibly in addition to cyclicprefix/es used. The symbols of a transmission timing structure may havethe same duration, or may in some variants have different duration. Thenumber of symbols in a transmission timing structure may be predefinedand/or configured or configurable, and/or be dependent on numerology.

There is generally considered a program product comprising instructionsadapted for causing processing and/or control circuitry to carry outand/or control any method described herein, in particular when executedon the processing and/or control circuitry. Also, there is considered acarrier medium arrangement carrying and/or storing a program product asdescribed herein.

A carrier medium arrangement may comprise one or more carrier media.Generally, a carrier medium may be accessible and/or readable and/orreceivable by processing or control circuitry. Storing data and/or aprogram product and/or code may be seen as part of carrying data and/ora program product and/or code. A carrier medium generally may comprise aguiding/transporting medium and/or a storage medium. Aguiding/transporting medium may be adapted to carry and/or carry and/orstore signals, in particular electromagnetic signals and/or electricalsignals and/or magnetic signals and/or optical signals. A carriermedium, in particular a guiding/transporting medium, may be adapted toguide such signals to carry them. A carrier medium, in particular aguiding/transporting medium, may comprise the electromagnetic field,e.g. radio waves or microwaves, and/or optically transmissive material,e.g. glass fiber, and/or cable. A storage medium may comprise at leastone of a memory, which may be volatile or non-volatile, a buffer, acache, an optical disc, magnetic memory, flash memory, etc.

In general, a numerology and/or subcarrier spacing may indicate thebandwidth (in frequency domain) of a subcarrier of a carrier, and/or thenumber of subcarriers in a carrier and/or the numbering of thesubcarriers in a carrier. Different numerologies may in particular bedifferent in the bandwidth of a subcarrier. In some variants, all thesubcarriers in a carrier have the same bandwidth associated to them. Thenumerology and/or subcarrier spacing may be different between carriersin particular regarding the subcarrier bandwidth. A symbol time length,and/or a time length of a timing structure pertaining to a carrier maybe dependent on the carrier frequency, and/or the subcarrier spacingand/or the numerology. In particular, different numerologies may havedifferent symbol time lengths.

Signaling may generally comprise one or more symbols and/or signalsand/or messages. A signal may comprise one or more bits. An indicationmay represent signaling, and/or be implemented as a signal, or as aplurality of signals. One or more signals may be included in and/orrepresented by a message. Signaling, in particular control signaling,may comprise a plurality of signals and/or messages, which may betransmitted on different carriers and/or be associated to differentsignaling processes, e.g. representing and/or pertaining to one or moresuch processes and/or corresponding information. An indication maycomprise signaling, and/or a plurality of signals and/or messages and/ormay be comprised therein, which may be transmitted on different carriersand/or be associated to different acknowledgement signaling processes,e.g. representing and/or pertaining to one or more such processes.

Uplink or sidelink signaling may be OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency DivisionMultiple Access) or SC-FDMA (Single Carrier Frequency Division MultipleAccess) signaling. Downlink signaling may in particular be OFDMAsignaling. However, signaling is not limited thereto (Filter-Bank basedsignaling may be considered one alternative).

A radio node may generally be considered a device or node adapted forwireless and/or radio (and/or microwave) frequency communication, and/orfor communication utilizing an air interface, e.g. according to acommunication standard.

A radio node may be a network node, or a user equipment or terminal. Anetwork node may be any radio node of a wireless communication network,e.g. a base station and/or gNodeB (gNB) and/or eNodeB (eNB) and/or relaynode and/or micro/nano/pico/femto node and/or other node, in particularfor a RAN as described herein.

The terms wireless device, user equipment (UE) and terminal may beconsidered to be interchangeable in the context of this disclosure. Awireless device, user equipment or terminal may represent an end devicefor communication utilizing the wireless communication network, and/orbe implemented as a user equipment according to a standard. Examples ofuser equipments may comprise a phone like a smartphone, a personalcommunication device, a mobile phone or terminal, a computer, inparticular laptop, a sensor or machine with radio capability (and/oradapted for the air interface), in particular for MTC(Machine-Type-Communication, sometimes also referred to M2M,Machine-To-Machine), or a vehicle adapted for wireless communication. Auser equipment or terminal may be mobile or stationary.

A radio node may generally comprise processing circuitry and/or radiocircuitry. Circuitry may comprise integrated circuitry. Processingcircuitry may comprise one or more processors and/or controllers (e.g.,microcontrollers), and/or ASICs (Application Specific IntegratedCircuitry) and/or FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Array), or similar. Itmay be considered that processing circuitry comprises, and/or is(operatively) connected or connectable to one or more memories or memoryarrangements. A memory arrangement may comprise one or more memories. Amemory may be adapted to store digital information. Examples formemories comprise volatile and non-volatile memory, and/or Random AccessMemory (RAM), and/or Read-Only-Memory (ROM), and/or magnetic and/oroptical memory, and/or flash memory, and/or hard disk memory, and/orEPROM or EEPROM (Erasable Programmable ROM or Electrically ErasableProgrammable ROM). Radio circuitry may comprise one or more transmittersand/or receivers and/or transceivers (a transceiver may operate or beoperable as transmitter and receiver, and/or may comprise joint orseparated circuitry for receiving and transmitting, e.g. in one packageor housing), and/or may comprise one or more amplifiers and/oroscillators and/or filters, and/or may comprise, and/or be connected orconnectable to antenna circuitry and/or one or more antennas.

Any one or all of the modules disclosed herein may be implemented insoftware and/or firmware and/or hardware. Different modules may beassociated to different components of a radio node, e.g. differentcircuitries or different parts of a circuitry. It may be considered thata module is distributed over different components and/or circuitries. Aprogram product as described herein may comprise the modules related toa device on which the program product is intended (e.g., a userequipment or network node) to be executed (the execution may beperformed on the associated circuitry).

A radio access network may be a wireless communication network, and/or aRadio Access Network (RAN) in particular according to a communicationstandard. A communication standard may in particular a standardaccording to 3GPP and/or 5G, e.g. according to NR or LTE, in particularLTE Evolution.

A wireless communication network may be and/or comprise a Radio AccessNetwork (RAN), which may be and/or comprise any kind of cellular and/orwireless radio network, which may be connected or connectable to a corenetwork. The approaches described herein are particularly suitable for a5G network, e.g. LTE Evolution and/or NR (New Radio), respectivelysuccessors thereof. A RAN may comprise one or more network nodes. Anetwork node may in particular be a radio node adapted for radio and/orwireless and/or cellular communication with one or more terminals. Aterminal may be any device adapted for radio and/or wireless and/orcellular communication with or within a RAN, e.g. a user equipment (UE)or mobile phone or smartphone or computing device or vehicularcommunication device or device for machine-type-communication (MTC),etc. A terminal may be mobile, or in some cases stationary.

Transmitting in downlink may pertain to transmission from the network ornetwork node to the terminal. Transmitting in uplink may pertain totransmission from the terminal to the network or network node.Transmitting in sidelink may pertain to (direct) transmission from onterminal to another. Uplink, downlink and sidelink (e.g., sidelinktransmission and reception) may be considered communication directions.

Signaling may generally comprise one or more signals and/or one or moresymbols. Control information or a control information message orcorresponding signaling (control signaling) may be transmitted on acontrol channel, e.g. a physical control channel, which may be adownlink channel or (or a sidelink channel in some cases, e.g. one UEscheduling another UE). For example, control information/allocationinformation may be signaled by a network node on PDCCH (PhysicalDownlink Control Channel) and/or a PDSCH (Physical Downlink SharedChannel) and/or a HARQ-specific channel. Acknowledgement signaling, e.g.as a form of uplink control information, may be transmitted by aterminal on a PUCCH (Physical Uplink Control Channel) and/or PUSCH(Physical Uplink Shared Channel) and/or a HARQ-specific channel.Multiple channels may apply for multi-component/multi-carrier indicationor signaling.

Transmitting signaling, in particular control signaling, e.g. comprisingor representing acknowledgement signaling and/or resource requestinginformation, may comprise encoding and/or modulating. Encoding and/ormodulating may comprise error detection coding and/or forward errorcorrection encoding and/or scrambling. Receiving control signaling maycomprise corresponding decoding and/or demodulation.

An indication generally may explicitly and/or implicitly indicate theinformation it represents and/or indicates. Implicit indication may forexample be based on position and/or resource used for transmission.Explicit indication may for example be based on a parametrization withone or more parameters, and/or one or more index or indices, and/or oneor more bit patterns representing the information. It may in particularbe considered that control signaling as described herein, based on theutilized resource sequence, implicitly indicates the control signalingtype.

A resource element may generally describe the smallest individuallyusable and/or encodable and/or decodable and/or modulatable and/ordemodulatable time-frequency resource, and/or may describe atime-frequency resource covering a symbol time length in time and asubcarrier in frequency. A signal may be allocatable and/or allocated toa resource element. A subcarrier may be a subband of a carrier, e.g. asdefined by a standard. A carrier may define a frequency and/or frequencyband for transmission and/or reception. In some variants, a signal(jointly encoded/modulated) may cover more than one resource elements. Aresource element may generally be as defined by a correspondingstandard, e.g. NR or LTE. As symbol time length and/or subcarrierspacing (and/or numerology) may be different between different symbolsand/or subcarriers, different resource elements may have differentextension (length/width) in time and/or frequency domain, in particularresource elements pertaining to different carriers.

A resource generally may represent a time-frequency and/or coderesource, on which signaling, e.g. according to a specific format, maybe communicated, for example transmitted and/or received, and/or beintended for transmission and/or reception.

A border symbol may generally represent a starting symbol fortransmitting or an ending symbol for receiving. A starting symbol may inparticular be a starting symbol of uplink or sidelink signaling, forexample control signaling or data signaling. Such signaling may be on adata channel or control channel, e.g. a physical channel, in particulara physical uplink shared channel (like PUSCH) or a sidelink data orshared channel, or a physical uplink control channel (like PUCCH) or asidelink control channel. If the starting symbol is associated tocontrol signaling (e.g., on a control channel), the control signalingmay be in response to received signaling (in sidelink or downlink), e.g.representing acknowledgement signaling associated thereto, which may beHARQ or ARQ signaling. An ending symbol may represent an ending symbol(in time) of downlink or sidelink transmission or signaling, which maybe intended or scheduled for the radio node or user equipment. Suchdownlink signaling may in particular be data signaling, e.g. on aphysical downlink channel like a shared channel, e.g. a PDSCH (PhysicalDownlink Shared Channel). A starting symbol may be determined based on,and/or in relation to, such an ending symbol.

Configuring a radio node, in particular a terminal or user equipment,may refer to the radio node being adapted or caused or set to operateaccording to the configuration. Configuring may be done by anotherdevice, e.g., a network node (for example, a radio node of the networklike a base station or eNodeB) or network, in which case it may comprisetransmitting configuration data to the radio node to be configured. Suchconfiguration data may represent the configuration to be configuredand/or comprise one or more instruction pertaining to a configuration,e.g. a configuration for transmitting and/or receiving on allocatedresources, in particular frequency resources. A radio node may configureitself, e.g., based on configuration data received from a network ornetwork node. A network node may utilize, and/or be adapted to utilize,its circuitry/ies for configuring. Allocation information may beconsidered a form of configuration data.

Generally, configuring may include determining configuration datarepresenting the configuration and providing it to one or more othernodes (parallel and/or sequentially), which may transmit it further tothe radio node (or another node, which may be repeated until it reachesthe wireless device). Alternatively, or additionally, configuring aradio node, e.g., by a network node or other device, may includereceiving configuration data and/or data pertaining to configurationdata, e.g., from another node like a network node, which may be ahigher-level node of the network, and/or transmitting receivedconfiguration data to the radio node. Accordingly, determining aconfiguration and transmitting the configuration data to the radio nodemay be performed by different network nodes or entities, which may beable to communicate via a suitable interface, e.g., an X2 interface inthe case of LTE or a corresponding interface for NR. Configuring aterminal may comprise scheduling downlink and/or uplink transmissionsfor the terminal, e.g. downlink data and/or downlink control signalingand/or DCI and/or uplink signaling, in particular acknowledgementsignaling, and/or configuring resources and/or a resource pool therefor.

A resource structure may be considered to be neighbored in frequencydomain by another resource structure, if they share a common borderfrequency, e.g. one as an upper frequency border and the other as alower frequency border. Such a border may for example be represented bythe upper end of a bandwidth assigned to a subcarrier n, which alsorepresents the lower end of a bandwidth assigned to a subcarrier n+1.

A resource structure may be considered to be neighbored in time domainby another resource structure, if they share a common border time, e.g.one as an upper (or right in the figures) border and the other as alower (or left in the figures) border. Such a border may for example berepresented by the end of the symbol time interval assigned to a symboln, which also represents the beginning of a symbol time intervalassigned to a symbol n+1.

Generally, a resource structured being neighbored by another resourcestructure in a domain may also be referred to as abutting and/orbordering the other resource structure in the domain.

A resource structure may general represent a structure in time and/orfrequency domain, in particular representing a time interval and afrequency interval. A resource structure may comprise and/or becomprised of resource elements, and/or the time interval of a resourcestructure may comprise and/or be comprised of symbol time interval/s,and/or the frequency interval of a resource structure may compriseand/or be comprised of subcarrier/s. A resource element may beconsidered an example for a resource structure, a slot or mini-slot or aPhysical Resource Block (PRB) or parts thereof may be considered others.A resource structure may be associated to a specific channel, e.g. aPUSCH or PUCCH, in particular resource structure smaller than a slot orPRB.

A carrier may generally represent a frequency range or band and/orpertain to a central frequency and an associated frequency interval. Itmay be considered that a carrier comprises a plurality of subcarriers. Acarrier may have assigned to it a central frequency or center frequencyinterval, e.g. represented by one or more subcarriers (to eachsubcarrier there may be generally assigned a frequency bandwidth orinterval). Different carriers may be non-overlapping, and/or may beneighboring in frequency domain.

It should be noted that the term “radio” in this disclosure may beconsidered to pertain to wireless communication in general, and may alsoinclude wireless communication utilizing microwave and/or millimeterand/or other frequencies, in particular between 100 MHz or 1 GHz, and100 GHz or 20 or 10 GHz. Such communication may utilize one or morecarriers.

A radio node, in particular a network node or a terminal, may generallybe any device adapted for transmitting and/or receiving radio and/orwireless signals and/or data, in particular communication data, inparticular on at least one carrier. The at least one carrier maycomprise a carrier accessed based on a LBT procedure (which may becalled LBT carrier), e.g., an unlicensed carrier. It may be consideredthat the carrier is part of a carrier aggregate.

Receiving or transmitting on a cell or carrier may refer to receiving ortransmitting utilizing a frequency (band) or spectrum associated to thecell or carrier. A cell may generally comprise and/or be defined by orfor one or more carriers, in particular at least one carrier for ULcommunication/transmission (called UL carrier) and at least one carrierfor DL communication/transmission (called DL carrier). It may beconsidered that a cell comprises different numbers of UL carriers and DLcarriers. Alternatively, or additionally, a cell may comprise at leastone carrier for UL communication/transmission and DLcommunication/transmission, e.g., in TDD-based approaches.

A channel may generally be a logical, transport or physical channel. Achannel may comprise and/or be arranged on one or more carriers, inparticular a plurality of subcarriers. A channel carrying and/or forcarrying control signaling/control information may be considered acontrol channel, in particular if it is a physical layer channel.

In general, a symbol may represent and/or be associated to a symbol timelength, which may be dependent on the carrier and/or subcarrier spacingand/or numerology of the associated carrier. Accordingly, a symbol maybe considered to indicate a time interval having a symbol time length inrelation to frequency domain. A symbol time length may be dependent on acarrier frequency and/or bandwidth and/or numerology and/or subcarrierspacing of or associated to a symbol. Accordingly, different symbols mayhave different symbol time lengths.

A sidelink may generally represent a communication channel (or channelstructure) between two UEs and/or terminals, in which data istransmitted between the participants (UEs and/or terminals) via thecommunication channel, e.g. directly and/or without being relayed via anetwork node. A sidelink may be established only and/or directly via airinterface/s of the participant, which may be directly linked via thesidelink communication channel. In some variants, sidelink communicationmay be performed without interaction by a network node, e.g. on fixedlydefined resources and/or on resources negotiated between theparticipants. Alternatively, or additionally, it may be considered thata network node provides some control functionality, e.g. by configuringresources, in particular one or more resource pool/s, for sidelinkcommunication, and/or monitoring a sidelink, e.g. for charging purposes.

Sidelink communication may also be referred to as device-to-device (D2D)communication, and/or in some cases as ProSe (Proximity Services)communication, e.g. in the context of LTE. A sidelink may be implementedin the context of V2x communication (Vehicular communication), e.g. V2V(Vehicle-to-Vehicle), V2I (Vehicle-to-Infrastructure) and/or V2P(Vehicle-to-Person). Any device adapted for sidelink communication maybe considered a user equipment or terminal.

A sidelink communication channel (or structure) may comprise one or more(e.g., physical or logical) channels, e.g. a PSCCH (Physical SidelinkControl CHannel, which may for example carry control information like anacknowledgement position indication, and/or a PSSCH (Physical SidelinkShared CHannel, which for example may carry data and/or acknowledgementsignaling). It may be considered that a sidelink communication channel(or structure) pertains to and/or used one or more carrier/s and/orfrequency range/s associated to, and/or being used by, cellularcommunication, e.g. according to a specific license and/or standard.Participants may share a (physical) channel and/or resources, inparticular in frequency domain and/or related to a frequency resourcelike a carrier) of a sidelink, such that two or more participantstransmit thereon, e.g. simultaneously, and/or time-shifted, and/or theremay be associated specific channels and/or resources to specificparticipants, so that for example only one participant transmits on aspecific channel or on a specific resource or specific resources, e.g.,in frequency domain and/or related to one or more carriers orsubcarriers.

A sidelink may comply with, and/or be implemented according to, aspecific standard, e.g. a LTE-based standard and/or NR. A sidelink mayutilize TDD (Time Division Duplex) and/or FDD (Frequency DivisionDuplex) technology, e.g. as configured by a network node, and/orpreconfigured and/or negotiated between the participants. A userequipment may be considered to be adapted for sidelink communication ifit, and/or its radio circuitry and/or processing circuitry, is adaptedfor utilizing a sidelink, e.g. on one or more frequency ranges and/orcarriers and/or in one or more formats, in particular according to aspecific standard. It may be generally considered that a Radio AccessNetwork is defined by two participants of a sidelink communication.Alternatively, or additionally, a Radio Access Network may berepresented, and/or defined with, and/or be related to a network nodeand/or communication with such a node.

Communication or communicating may generally comprise transmittingand/or receiving signaling. Communication on a sidelink (or sidelinksignaling) may comprise utilizing the sidelink for communication(respectively, for signaling). Sidelink transmission and/or transmittingon a sidelink may be considered to comprise transmission utilizing thesidelink, e.g. associated resources and/or transmission formats and/orcircuitry and/or the air interface. Sidelink reception and/or receivingon a sidelink may be considered to comprise reception utilizing thesidelink, e.g. associated resources and/or transmission formats and/orcircuitry and/or the air interface. Sidelink control information (e.g.,SCI) may generally be considered to comprise control informationtransmitted utilizing a sidelink.

Generally, carrier aggregation (CA) may refer to the concept of a radioconnection and/or communication link between a wireless and/or cellularcommunication network and/or network node and a terminal or on asidelink comprising a plurality of carriers for at least one directionof transmission (e.g. DL and/or UL), as well as to the aggregate ofcarriers. A corresponding communication link may be referred to ascarrier aggregated communication link or CA communication link; carriersin a carrier aggregate may be referred to as component carriers (CC). Insuch a link, data may be transmitted over more than one of the carriersand/or all the carriers of the carrier aggregation (the aggregate ofcarriers). A carrier aggregation may comprise one (or more) dedicatedcontrol carriers and/or primary carriers (which may e.g. be referred toas primary component carrier or PCC), over which control information maybe transmitted, wherein the control information may refer to the primarycarrier and other carriers, which may be referred to as secondarycarriers (or secondary component carrier, SCC). However, in someapproaches, control information may be sent over more than one carrierof an aggregate, e.g. one or more PCCs and one PCC and one or more SCCs.

A transmission may generally pertain to a specific channel and/orspecific resources, in particular with a starting symbol and endingsymbol in time, covering the interval therebetween. A scheduledtransmission may be a transmission scheduled and/or expected and/or forwhich resources are scheduled or provided or reserved. However, notevery scheduled transmission has to be realized. For example, ascheduled downlink transmission may not be received, or a scheduleduplink transmission may not be transmitted due to power limitations, orother influences (e.g., a channel on an unlicensed carrier beingoccupied). A transmission may be scheduled for a transmission timingsubstructure (e.g., a mini-slot, and/or covering only a part of atransmission timing structure) within a transmission timing structurelike a slot. A border symbol may be indicative of a symbol in thetransmission timing structure at which the transmission starts or ends.

Predefined in the context of this disclosure may refer to the relatedinformation being defined for example in a standard, and/or beingavailable without specific configuration from a network or network node,e.g. stored in memory, for example independent of being configured.Configured or configurable may be considered to pertain to thecorresponding information being set/configured, e.g. by the network or anetwork node.

A mini-slot may be transmitted and/or received based on a configuration.

A configuration, like a mini-slot configuration and/or structureconfiguration, may schedule transmissions, e.g. for thetime/transmissions it is valid, and/or transmissions may be scheduled byseparate signaling or separate configuration, e.g. separate RRCsignaling and/or downlink control information signaling. It should benoted that downlink control information or specifically DCI signalingmay be considered physical layer signaling, in contrast to higher layersignaling like MAC (Medium Access Control) signaling or RRC layersignaling. The higher the layer of signaling is, the less frequent/themore time/resource consuming it may be considered, at least partiallydue to the information contained in such signaling having to be passedon through several layers, each layer requiring processing and handling.

A scheduled transmission and/or mini-slot may pertain to a specificchannel, in particular a physical uplink shared channel, a physicaluplink control channel, or a physical downlink shared channel, e.g.PUSCH, PUCCH or PDSCH, and/or may pertain to a specific cell and/orcarrier aggregation. A corresponding configuration, e.g. schedulingconfiguration or symbol configuration may pertain to such channel, celland/or carrier aggregation.

A configuration may be a configuration indicating timing, and/or berepresented or configured with corresponding configuration data. Aconfiguration may be embedded in, and/or comprised in, a message orconfiguration or corresponding data, which may indicate and/or scheduleresources, in particular semi-persistently and/or semi-statically.

It may be considered that the scheduled transmission representstransmission on a physical channel, in particular a shared physicalchannel, for example a physical uplink shared channel or physicaldownlink shared channel. For such channels, semi-persistent configuringmay be particularly suitable.

A control region of a transmission timing structure may be an intervalin time for intended or scheduled or reserved for control signaling, inparticular downlink control signaling, and/or for a specific controlchannel, e.g. a physical downlink control channel like PDCCH. Theinterval may comprise, and/or consist of, a number of symbols in time,which may be configured or configurable, e.g. by (UE-specific) dedicatedsignaling (which may be single-cast, for example addressed to orintended for a specific UE), e.g. on a PDCCH, or RRC signaling, or on amulticast or broadcast channel. In general, the transmission timingstructure may comprise a control region covering a configurable numberof symbols. It may be considered that in general the border symbol isconfigured to be after the control region in time.

The duration of a symbol of the transmission timing structure maygenerally be dependent on a numerology and/or carrier, wherein thenumerology and/or carrier may be configurable. The numerology may be thenumerology to be used for the scheduled transmission.

Scheduling a device, or for a device, and/or related transmission orsignaling, may be considered comprising, or being a form of, configuringthe device with resources, and/or of indicating to the device resources,e.g. to use for communicating. Scheduling may in particular pertain to atransmission timing structure, or a substructure thereof (e.g., a slotor a mini-slot, which may be considered a substructure of a slot). Itmay be considered that a border symbol may be identified and/ordetermined in relation to the transmission timing structure even if fora substructure being scheduled, e.g. if an underlying timing grid isdefined based on the transmission timing structure. Signaling indicatingscheduling may comprise corresponding scheduling information and/or beconsidered to represent or contain configuration data indicating thescheduled transmission and/or comprising scheduling information. Suchconfiguration data or signaling may be considered a resourceconfiguration or scheduling configuration. It should be noted that sucha configuration (in particular as single message) in some cases may notbe complete without other configuration data, e.g. configured with othersignaling, e.g. higher layer signaling. In particular, the symbolconfiguration may be provided in addition to scheduling/resourceconfiguration to identify exactly which symbols are assigned to ascheduled transmission. A scheduling (or resource) configuration mayindicate transmission timing structure/s and/or resource amount (e.g.,in number of symbols or length in time) for a scheduled transmission.

A scheduled transmission may be transmission scheduled, e.g. by thenetwork or network node. Transmission may in this context may be uplink(UL) or downlink (DL) or sidelink (SL) transmission. A device, e.g. auser equipment, for which the scheduled transmission is scheduled, mayaccordingly be scheduled to receive (e.g., in DL or SL), or to transmit(e.g., in UL or SL) the scheduled transmission. Scheduling transmissionmay in particular be considered to comprise configuring a scheduleddevice with resource/s for this transmission, and/or informing thedevice that the transmission is intended and/or scheduled for someresources. A transmission may be scheduled to cover a time interval, inparticular a successive number of symbols, which may form a continuousinterval in time between (and including) a starting symbol and an endingsymbol. The starting symbol and the ending symbol of a (e.g., scheduled)transmission may be within the same transmission timing structure, e.g.the same slot. However, in some cases, the ending symbol may be in alater transmission timing structure than the starting symbol, inparticular a structure following in time. To a scheduled transmission, aduration may be associated and/or indicated, e.g. in a number of symbolsor associated time intervals. In some variants, there may be differenttransmissions scheduled in the same transmission timing structure. Ascheduled transmission may be considered to be associated to a specificchannel, e.g. a shared channel like PUSCH or PDSCH.

A transmission timing structure may comprise a plurality of symbols,and/or define an interval comprising several symbols (respectively theirassociated time intervals). In the context of this disclosure, it shouldbe noted that a reference to a symbol for ease of reference may beinterpreted to refer to the time domain projection or time interval ortime component or duration or length in time of the symbol, unless it isclear from the context that the frequency domain component also has tobe considered. Examples of transmission timing structures include slot,subframe, mini-slot (which also may be considered a substructure of aslot), slot aggregation (which may comprise a plurality of slots and maybe considered a superstructure of a slot), respectively their timedomain component.

A transmission timing structure may generally comprise a plurality ofsymbols defining the time domain extension (e.g., interval or length orduration) of the transmission timing structure, and arranged neighboringto each other in a numbered sequence. A timing structure (which may alsobe considered or implemented as synchronization structure) may bedefined by a succession of such transmission timing structures, whichmay for example define a timing grid with symbols representing thesmallest grid structures. A transmission timing structure, and/or aborder symbol or a scheduled transmission may be determined or scheduledin relation to such a timing grid. A transmission timing structure ofreception may be the transmission timing structure in which thescheduling control signaling is received, e.g. in relation to the timinggrid. A transmission timing structure may in particular be a slot orsubframe or in some cases, a mini-slot.

In this disclosure, for purposes of explanation and not limitation,specific details are set forth (such as particular network functions,processes and signaling steps) in order to provide a thoroughunderstanding of the technique presented herein. It will be apparent toone skilled in the art that the present concepts and aspects may bepracticed in other variants and variants that depart from these specificdetails.

For example, the concepts and variants are partially described in thecontext of Long Term Evolution (LTE) or LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) or NewRadio mobile or wireless communications technologies; however, this doesnot rule out the use of the present concepts and aspects in connectionwith additional or alternative mobile communication technologies such asthe Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM). While the followingvariants will partially be described with respect to certain TechnicalSpecifications (TSs) of the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP),it will be appreciated that the present concepts and aspects could alsobe realized in connection with different Performance Management (PM)specifications.

Moreover, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the services,functions and steps explained herein may be implemented using softwarefunctioning in conjunction with a programmed microprocessor, or using anApplication Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Digital SignalProcessor (DSP), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or generalpurpose computer. It will also be appreciated that while the variantsdescribed herein are elucidated in the context of methods and devices,the concepts and aspects presented herein may also be embodied in aprogram product as well as in a system comprising control circuitry,e.g. a computer processor and a memory coupled to the processor, whereinthe memory is encoded with one or more programs or program products thatexecute the services, functions and steps disclosed herein.

It is believed that the advantages of the aspects and variants presentedherein will be fully understood from the foregoing description, and itwill be apparent that various changes may be made in the form,constructions and arrangement of the exemplary aspects thereof withoutdeparting from the scope of the concepts and aspects described herein orwithout sacrificing all of its advantageous effects. The aspectspresented herein can be varied in many ways.

Abbreviation Explanation CDM Code Division Multiplex CQI Channel QualityInformation CRC Cyclic Redundancy Check DCI Downlink Control InformationDFT Discrete Fourier Transform DM-RS Demodulation Reference Signal FDMFrequency Division Multiplex HARQ Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request OFDMOrthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex PAPR Peak to Average Power RatioPUCCH Physical Uplink Control Channel PRB Physical Resource Block RRCRadio Resource Control UCI Uplink Control Information UE User Equipment

Abbreviations may be considered to follow 3GPP usage if applicable.

1. A method of operating a user equipment (UE) in a New Radio (NR) radioaccess network, the method comprising: transmitting Uplink ControlInformation (UCI) comprising Hybrid Acknowledgement Repeat Request(HARQ) feedback on a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) based on afeedback size indication received with Downlink Control Information(DCI) signaling, the DCI signaling being an uplink grant also schedulingto the UE a signaling resource range for transmission on the PUSCH; andtransmitting UCI being further based on a feedback configurationconfigured to the UE.
 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein thefeedback size indication indicates a number of bits of HARQ feedbackpertaining to associated HARQ processes scheduled for a time intervalcomprising a plurality of slots to be transmitted.
 3. The methodaccording to claim 1, wherein the UCI comprises measurement information.4. The method according to claim 1, wherein transmitting UCI based on afeedback size indication further comprises transmitting UCI in afeedback resource range, the feedback resource range being determinedbased on the feedback size indication.
 5. The method according to claim1, wherein the feedback size indication is an indirect indication. 6.The method according to claim 1, wherein the UCI is transmitted onresources of the signaling resource range.
 7. The method according toclaim 1, wherein the feedback size indication pertains to a size of HARQfeedback pertaining to a plurality of different HARQ processes.
 8. Themethod according to claim 1, wherein the feedback size indication istransmitted separately from at least one scheduling assignmentscheduling signaling to which the HARQ feedback pertains.
 9. The methodaccording to claim 1, wherein the HARQ feedback is rate matched on thesignaling resource range.
 10. A user equipment (UE) for a New Radio (NR)radio access network, the UE comprising processing circuitry and radiocircuitry, and being configured to utilize the processing circuitry andradio circuitry to: transmit Uplink Control Information (UCI) comprisingHybrid Acknowledgement Repeat Request (HARQ) feedback on a PhysicalUplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) based on a feedback size indicationreceived with Downlink Control Information (DCI) signaling, the DCIsignaling being an uplink grant also scheduling to the UE a signalingresource range for transmission on the PUSCH; and transmitting UCI beingfurther based on a feedback configuration configured to the UE.
 11. Theuser equipment according to claim 10, wherein the feedback sizeindication indicates a number of bits of HARQ feedback pertaining toassociated HARQ processes scheduled for a time interval comprising aplurality of slots to be transmitted.
 12. The user equipment accordingto claim 10, wherein the UCI comprises measurement information.
 13. Theuser equipment according to claim 10, wherein transmitting UCI based ona feedback size indication comprises transmitting UCI in a feedbackresource range, the feedback resource range being determined based onthe feedback size indication.
 14. The user equipment according to claim10, wherein the feedback size indication is an indirect indication. 15.The user equipment according to claim 10, wherein the UCI is transmittedon resources of the signaling resource range.
 16. The user equipmentaccording to claim 10, wherein the feedback size indication pertains toa size of HARQ feedback pertaining to a plurality of different HARQprocesses.
 17. The user equipment according to claim 10, wherein thefeedback size indication is transmitted separately from at least onescheduling assignment scheduling signaling to which the HARQ feedbackpertains.
 18. The user equipment according to claim 10, wherein the HARQfeedback is rate matched on the signaling resource range.